American Brad Faxon set the early pace at Lytham this morning with a front nine in three-under 32, and Colin Montgomerie also made a good start.
With arguably the best putting stoke on the US PGA Tour, Faxon has adapted well to the small and typically hard links greens. An eagle three at the par five sixth was the highlight of his outward half.
From there, the Sony Open winner went on to birdie the 11th to move to four-under and leads by two from a group of three players on two-under that includes Montgomerie, England’s Justin Rose and Australian Peter O’Malley.
Montgomerie, winner of the Irish Open three weeks ago, collected birdies on the opening two holes, as did O’Malley, winner of the English Open last month.
Rose propelled himself up the leaderboard thanks to an eagle three at the second of two par fives in a row, the seventh.
Paul McGinley was one further back after birdies at the first and sixth, with the only dropped shot coming at the third.
Des Smyth successfully managed to reach the turn in level par 35 in the tricky conditions. Since then, the 48-year-old dropped back to two-over with a brace of bogeys at the 12th and 13th.
Padraig Harrington also made the turn in level par, and his birdie-bogey combination at seven and eight and seven other pars will do no harm to settle the Dubliner.
Defending champion Tiger Woods is also level after a bogey at the fourth cancelled out his opening two at the par three first. British Amateur champion Michael Hoey made a steady start after four straight pars.
Darren Clarke two-putted for a double-bogey at the opening hole. He remained two-over after three holes.